


To Love Another Person

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [89]
Category: Gundam Wing, NCIS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 05:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8237839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "NCIS, Gibbs/Tony, after Gibbs runs off to Mexico, Tony goes to confession because he can't think of anyone else to talk to."Tony makes his confession to the young but understanding Father Maxwell. Set between seasons 3 and 4 of NCIS.





	

Tony can’t help but think that the guy kneeling in one of the pews - short, lean, with messy dark hair and an Asian cast to his features, head bowed - isn’t praying at all, is watching him. But Tony doesn’t know what to do. Gibbs is gone, his memory still half-baked. It was all a huge mess. Gibbs had remembered his duty but he’d forgotten Tony, and Tony feels like he’s been torn in half.  
  
He’s never been to this church before, but old habits die hard. He figures it’s better that his old habits are catholic cathedrals and confession instead of drugs or even alcohol, but he doesn’t know what to say, what to do. The priests he worked with as a kid were in turns stern and judgmental and kind. They were people, kind and funny and harsh and imperfect, and however they were, they were always a more consistent presence that DiNozzo Senior.  
  
Tony peers into the priest side of the booth, but there’s no one there. He wonders if there’s a button to push or a bell to ring or -  
  
The young man who comes scooting out of the back is wearing a black cassock and a white collar, but he looks like no priest Tony ever knew growing up. He’s, well, young, first of all, younger-looking than Tony. He has long red-brown hair tied back in a braid, and his big blue eyes are so dark they’re almost violet.  
  
“Father,” Tony says, half a question.  
  
“Father Maxwell.” The priest beams, and his sunny smile is so open, so friendly that Tony cannot help but smile back. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before, but I just took over for the, er, senior Father Maxwell, so I’m still learning names and faces.”  
  
“Tony DiNozzo,” he says, and shakes the priest’s hand. Father Maxwell’s hands are broad and strong, roughly callused from work, and his handshake is firm, confident. “I’m here for confession.”  
  
“Of course.” Father Maxwell gestures toward the confessional, and while Tony knows this is supposed to be anonymous, well, he’s never been here before, and he probably won’t come again.  
  
He gets into the booth, and with the screen separating them, making them a bit more anonymous, Tony is nervous, because he liked Father Maxwell’s big smile, and he doesn’t want to make the man frown. What is with Tony and his pathetic need for approval from authority figures, even ones who look like they shave even less often than Probie?  
  
But he kneels and crosses himself and says, “Bless me father for I have sinned, it has been…years since my last confession.”  
  
They go through the ritual language, which is surprisingly comforting. Father Maxwell’s voice seems deeper, now that Tony cannot see his young face, and he opens his mouth. And freezes.  
  
So he starts small, talking about all of the times he’s tormented Probie or looked wrong at Abby or Kate (no, don’t think about Kate) or Ziva.  
  
A couple of times he tries to work up to the fact that he is in love with the man he calls his Boss, that he was carrying on an affair with said boss (is it really an affair if neither of them married?), and that he’s brokenhearted because said boss got caught in an explosion, lost his memory, and walked away from him.  
  
But he never quite gets there.  
  
Father Maxwell listens to each small confession, each small transgression, advises Tony of the appropriate penance, and doesn’t pry.  
  
After a while, Tony runs out of steam, and Father Maxwell ends the session, and that’s that.  
  
He steps out of the confessional, and Father Maxwell stays behind, gives him some measure of anonymity. The spiky-haired guy stands up and heads into the confessional, brushing by Tony so closely Tony can feel his heat, and Tony hurries on his way.  
  
He comes back the next week, and he keeps to the small sins, more picking on Probie, checking out Director Shepard, flirting with women on the job, and Father Maxwell is as patient and appropriate as last week.  
  
That spiky-haired guy is there when Tony arrives and goes right in after him, and Tony thinks it’s weird, that the guy has weekly confession scheduled in at such a weird time.

When Tony comes back the third week, confessing his anger at Gibbs for leaving (but not his love, not yet), he realizes that he basically has confession scheduled weekly at a weird time as well, so he tries to smile at Spiky Hair (who has startlingly blue eyes, for an Asian guy), but the guy just scowls and shoulders past him and into the confessional.  
  
Tony has been confessing to Father Maxwell for five weeks (Father Maxwell never asks why he doesn’t come to Mass) when he can finally say it.  
  
“So this boss of mine.”  
  
“The one you’re angry at for leaving and saddling you with new duties, though you seem to be handling them well.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Go on.” Father Maxwell is never so patronizing as to call Tony ‘my son’, which he appreciates.  
  
“I’m in love with him. And he left me. And I want to hate him so bad, but I miss him, and I don’t know how to do this without him, and -” No. Oh no. Tony’s crying. He’s -  
  
A small panel slides to one side, near the screen, and Father Maxwell drops a little package of tissues on Tony’s lap.  
  
Tony is mortified, but he mumbles a _thanks_ and tries to blow his nose as quietly as possible.  
  
He waits for the condemnation, the hatred, the vicious penance, but Father Maxwell says, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”  
  
And Tony can’t help it. He weeps.  
  
When he finally steps out, Spiky Hair is leaning against the end of one of the pews, eyeing his watch and tapping his foot, but when he sees Tony’s face (Tony is not an attractive crier) he manages to look a little chagrined, and Tony books it out of there as fast as possible.  
  
He goes home and cries an embarrassing amount more, and then drinks an embarrassing amount, and he has to call in sick the next day, and then he feels...okay. He gets along better with Director Shepard (Jenny) and he institutes Campfires and he thinks he might have this team leader thing down, and he doesn’t need to go to confession anymore.  
  
But after a few weeks he thinks of Father Maxwell’s sunny smile and endless patience and how much his simple words made Tony start to feel whole again that he figures he ought to go and light a candle for the guy and say thank you. He doesn’t manage to make it there at his usual time, is instead a little late, and Spiky Hair isn’t there. Tony’s about to turn and go when he hears a sound, and there’s Spiky Hair, sliding out of the confessional booth.  
  
Out of the _priest_ side of the confessional booth.  
  
He looks grim and determined and a little heartbroken. Father Maxwell looks so, so sad as he steps out after him, but he smiles, and he leans in, kisses the man softly, and then walks away.  
  
Tony leaves silently. He’ll come back another day, light a candle for Father Maxwell. In the meantime, he has a job to do.


End file.
